HOJO has been introducing Jasmine pearl from Fujian province of China. This is the most popular tea in HOJO throughout the year.

Recently we often receive enquiry from customers, asking us to source for exclusive Jasmine tea. They are happy with existing Jasmine Pearl, but wish to explore if there is other jasmine tea that is beyond this standard. That was one of the reasons why we sourced for the exclusive jasmine tea.

The formal name for Snow Jasmine is Bi Tan Piao Xue (碧潭飄雪). Tea is produced in Sichuan province of China. Tea is grown at mountain above 1000 meter. Fresh green tea is plucked and processes in early spring. This green teai is then kept until July to August when Jasmine flower is ready. To obtain this tea, the most challenging part is the selection of green tea. We need to manage not only the quality, but also the price. We are choosing Sichuan famous green tea called Meng Ding Gan Lu (蒙顶甘露). We emphasize that tea gives strong after taste and leaf is fresh. An excessively baked leaf gives burnt aroma and it will disturb the overall fragrance of Jasmine tea. Unlike to Jasmine pearl, this tea contains the petal of jasmine flower. It is not meant for flavor, but for decorative purpose. Thanks to the petal, tea looks very pretty and elegant. It really looks like the snow that falling over the tea garden.

 

 

If any customer wonder about its quality, we often suggest them to try it on the spot. Anyone whom drinks this tea will know what is so-called good jasmine tea. The taste of this tea is very thick and it goes very deep down the throat. The texture of tea is very soft and gentle; it flows along the throat and travels down into the chest. After drinking this tea, you feel warm and your face blushes. Its flavor lingers very long not only in our mouth but also in our heart. This is the easiest tea for us to explain about its quality.

If you wish to know the production process in detail, please refer to the page of Jasmine Pearl.

Water

 

In you are using tap water, it is necessary to filter the water using an activated carbon filter. If not, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy the authentic taste of tea. Chlorine is added to tap water in order to sanitize bacteria. This chlorinated water will also harm our body cells. Concerning about our health condition, it is very important to remove chlorine from drinking water. The most effective method in removing chlorine is to install an activated carbon filter. This type of filter is designed for removing organic substance. It will remove not only chlorine, but also other harmful substance such as contaminated pesticide. The activated carbon filter can be easily obtained from the common hardware shop in most countries. If activated carbon filter is not available, please place a charcoal inside the water and leave it for over night. The material composed of activated carbon filter is made of ground charcoal.  The difference is that activated carbon filter contains much finer particles and hence it has extremely large surface area for a better efficiency in filtration. We do not suggest RO water (reversed osmosis water) or distilled water. This water carries no mineral, the taste and flavor of tea tends to be very unstable, unless you have very superior quality tea and tea equipment.
It is also advisable not to use fresh tap water. The intensity of after taste becomes stronger if water is kept overnight. Keeping water with stones or inside clay jar will increase the content of minerals. However, you need to confirm whether or not the water kept inside particular jar or with stone is suitable with your tea or tea equipment (such as teapot). If water jar carries certain minerals like copper or zinc, it will rather spoil the taste and flavor of tea. For this, you need to confirm with experiment on try and error basis.
For boiling water, please do not use aluminum or copper kettle. It spoils the taste of water. We suggest using kettle made of iron, stainless steel, tin or glass. 

In the long run, you may observe a thick layer of scale accumulated inside your kettle. Our mother usually taught us to wash and remove it with citric acid. But please do not even try to remove the scale. Scale consists of minerals that exist in the water. The mineral composition is reflected from the water you used. If you remove the scale, the mineral ion balance between scale and water is destroyed. This balance is called buffer effect in science. The flavor and taste will seriously run out and you won’t be able to get previous taste and flavor for a long time. It is also important to stick to the same type of water whenever brewing tea. If source of water is changed, it carries different type of minerals. It will affect the mineral ion balance too.

Go to further information about suitable water for brewing tea >>

 

Brewing Tips

This tea is very rich in minerals and therefore, you can brew up to 10 infusions. It is important not to brew too long. For first brewing, I usually infuse for a few seconds. For second brewing onwards, I just run through the hot water and immediately pour out; this means I brew not more than a second. Even such a short brewing time, it gives sufficient taste and long-lasting flavor.

 

Brewing Technique Using Long Glass

 

1. Warm up glass with hot water. Usually it is ideal to keep hot water for 10 seconds.

2. Place 1 teaspoon of tea leaf (2-3g)

3. Pour hot water 80 degree C. Temperature of water is not too critical though.

4. Brew for 1 min.

5. You can keep brewing as many times as you wish.

One tea spoon equivalent quantity		Even the tea looks beautiful

 

Cold Water Brewing Method

 

Most of Green Teas can be brewed in cold water. The higher the grade of tea, the more suitable it is with cold water brewing.

Brewing method using the large container

1. Measure 1 table spoons of tea leaves for 500ml of water.
2. Pour the water into a glass jar or bottle and leave it for more than 1 hour.. It is also a good idea to put the tea leaves directly into a PET bottle.
3. Gently sway the container in order to get an even concentration.
4. Usually the taste of tea gets thicker when it is brewed for more than a few hours. In this case, pour in additional water. Eventually tea can be brewed more than 1 liter per 1 table spoon of tea leaves.

Brewing method using a clay teapot

1. Measure 4-6g of tea leaves for 200ml of water.
2. Pour water into a clay teapot and brew for 3 minutes.
3. For second brewing, brew for 20 seconds. Alternatively you can also switch to hot water from second brewing onwards, if you wish. If using hot water for second brewing, pour boiling water and brew for less than a few seconds. Since tea leaves are very cold and wet, the temperature drastically drops to less than 60 degree Celsius.
The benefit of cold water brewing is tea can last for a whole day and the taste is refreshing with a natural sweetness. Thanks to the cold water extraction, the level of caffeine in tea is very low. You would not suffer from sleepless nights. Even kids can enjoy this tea.